Gym Class Heroes - 'As Cruel As School Children' (Feuled By Ramen) Released 04/09/06

Gym Class Heroes are a live hip hop band from New York who, in replacing the usual hip hop production values with live instruments, have created a distinct original style of energised music which is both true to the genre but also accessible to non- hip hop fans. New album ‘As Cruel As School Children’, the collectives second album of the year following 'The Papercut Chronicles', fuses together elements from hip hop, rock and R&B to create a sound which certainly helps the band to stand out from the crowd.

The lyrics keep a very independent feel to the whole album with swipes at the glossy state of American hip hop alongside clever lines which take a bit of thinking about, but ultimately too many tales of women on the majority of tracks only helps to highlight the lack of diversity on offer here. Single ‘The Queen and I’ is the standout track on the album, where a high energy rhythm is countered by lead singer/mc Travis’ thoughts and experiences of women who like to drink too much alcohol, ‘baby girl’s a queen, but a queen’s just a pawn with a bunch of fancy moves’.

‘New Friend Request’ is a clever look at the world of Myspace, and users of the networking site are sure to be amused by the use of lines referencing the online ways of the world, “my man Tom introduced us” and “this is not an lol situation” being among the more perceptive snippets from the accessible track, which also has a video that’s well worth checking out.

The overall production sound of the album is crossover perfection, with a fun element added to a genre, perhaps a bit too soft for hip hop fans to really pay too much attention but definitely a good chance for the alternative crowd to experiment with a bit of rap.